Aston Lagonda: Catch It While You Can

Can't wait for the new Lagonda? Turn the clock back and set the digital dash for the heart of the wedge

Spangles, platform shoes, Noddy Holder - if I had to go back to one decade, it's the 1970s all day long. And I'm not alone: plenty of chaps of a certain age now have the wherewithal and freedom to indulge in nostalgia, and it's the 70s that are growing in grooviness.

Brave enough for this?

Call it the thin edge of the wedge. Chock-shaped machinery is suddenly cool. Such formerly unloved slices of 70s cheese as Bertone's Ferrari 308 GT4 are very much 'in', with prices to match. Could the same thing be happening to that most unappreciated of 70s wedges, the Aston Martin Lagonda?

Oh yes. As Aston's all-new Lagonda threatens to march into a showroom near you (well, assuming you live in a Gulf state), now seems a good time to celebrate the four-door fantasy that is the 1976-1990 Lagonda.

No market-watcher can have missed the storming increases in Aston Martin values recently. The DBS/V8 has been ballooning to such an extent that this 1970 DBS is actually looking splendid value now at £67,950, as does this £69,995 1974 V8. V8s can go as high as - wait for this - £235,000 (for this low-mileage V8 Volante X-Pack).

But for so long, the William Towns-penned stretch Lagonda has resolutely refused to follow suit. Collectors have regarded it as naff, louche, hideous, ill-conceived, not a proper Aston, etc. It may be all of those things, but just look at it: from the pop-up-lamped front end, isn't this just the coolest slice of origami you've ever seen?

There's no mistaking it for anything else

A heavy old crate at 2,100kg, the Lagonda ain't quick (143mph and 0-60 in eight-point-something seconds is beaten by today's humdrum diesels), but it has quirkiness written all over it. The handling is respectable (understeer ultimately dominates) but it's a great motorway tool, if you can put up with the cacophonous road and wind noise, that is. It's the dashboard that grabs all the attention, though. On a good day, it'll light up like an old Casio watch, red digits all aglow. Although on a bad day it may just decide to blank out.

Rarity (only 645 were built) means prices for good 'uns are going north. This stunning ex-Prince Saud low-mileage example is up for £59,995, although I'm not too sure about its Almond Green leather cabin... This even lower-mileage (13,769) two-owner Lagonda is even pricier at £64,995.

Look hard and Lagondas can still be found for lowish money, though, especially on the continent. This LHD Lag' (mmm, white...) is up in Belgium for 29,950 euros, or around £23,650.

Could it rise from the £60K being asked now?

Eye-watering restoration costs have kept a lid on prices of poor Lagondas, but even old sheds are starting to attract palatial rents, if this 1986 black example is anything to go by. It seems far from a bargain at £29,500, advertised as "to restore" and an "excellent original car". Just check out the state of the cabin first, though...

Still don't believe that four-door Lagondas are capable of making serious money? Check out this old-school, 1964 Lagonda Rapide which is now deep in exotic territory at £220,000. And the last time one of the very rare V8-shaped Series 1 1975 Lagonda four-doors came up at auction, it made £337,500.

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DoctorX

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